Assessment Of Couples And Families

Assessment of Couples and Families considers the impact of recent changes on the assessment process and provide practitioners with a review of contemporary techniques and the means by which they can be implemented into practice in conjunction with new reporting inventories and observational methods. These new assessment strategies will be presented collaterally with case material that addresses a specific problem, such as family violence or marital suitability. This unique problem focus will provide practitioners with a handy point of reference to acquaint themselves with modern practice techniques that address issues new to the therapy session while providing a supplement to coursework on assessment.

The field of family, child, and couple assessment continues to evolve and change since the first edition of this book appeared in 2004. Couple and Family Assessment, Third Edition, is a thoroughly revised and updated resource for anyone working with children, adolescents, couples, and families. It provides an in-depth description of an even larger number of clinically useful assessment tools and methods, including issue-specific tools, self-report inventories, standardized inventories, qualitative measures, and observational methods. Each chapter provides strategies for systematically utilizing these various assessment methods and measures with a wide range of family dynamics that influence couples and families. These include couples conflict, divorce, separation, mediation, premarital decisions, parenting conflicts, child abuse, family violence, custody evaluation, and child and adolescent conditions, i.e., depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and learning disorders that can significantly influence family dynamics. This third edition features the latest, most common and important assessment tools and strategies for addressing problematic clinical issues related to working with families, couples, and children. Chapters 3 through 11 include matrices that summarize pertinent information on all instruments reviewed, allowing readers to instantly compare more than 130 assessment devices. Finally, the book provides extensive clinical case material that illustrates the use of these various assessment tools and strategies in a wide array of clinical situations. Couple and Family Assessment, Third Edition, will be useful to both trainees and practitioners as a ready reference on assessment measures and strategies for working with families, couples, and children.

Showing how to weave assessment into all phases of therapy, this indispensable text and practitioner guide is reader friendly, straightforward, and practical. Specific strategies are provided for evaluating a wide range of clinical issues and concerns with adults, children and adolescents, families, and couples. The authors demonstrate ways to use interviewing and other techniques to understand both individual and relationship functioning, develop sound treatment plans, and monitor progress. Handy mnemonics help beginning family therapists remember what to include in assessments, and numerous case examples illustrate what the assessment principles look like in action with diverse clients. See also the authors' Essential Skills in Family Therapy, Third Edition: From the First Interview to Termination, which addresses all aspects of real-world clinical practice, and Clinician's Guide to Research Methods in Family Therapy.

This outstanding book is intended to help systems practitioners to keep abreast of how to do assessments of the couple, the family, the family sub-system and individual couple/family member(s). It is designed to assist both systemic practitioners and graduate students being trained in systems therapy. The chapters are most relevant to practitioners in their work with couples, families, (system as a whole, subsystems and individual couple and family members) with a variety of presenting problems. The chapter topics were chosen by surveying the field of systematic therapy and then focusing on those topics that are currently in the forefront. The underlying philosophy of the book is that due to the current demands for time and cost effective therapy, providing quality therapy for today's evolving diverse couples and families is no longer enough. Therefore, today's systems practitioners need to be knowledgeable about how to assess couples and families and guide the goal setting and treatment approach.

Family Assessment is the first book devoted exclusively to the application and interpretation of psychological tests in couples and family therapy. Using case examples, this book offers concrete, clinical advice on how to interpret test results to gain a better understanding of interpersonal compatibility, family dynamics, and systemic functioning.

Focused Genograms provides a cutting-edge guide to utilizing the Intersystem Approach meta-framework and attachment theory to construct focused genograms. Focused genograms are graphic representations of intergenerational family interactions, and can be tailored to themes. This new volume includes nearly two decades of research, clinical experience, and theory; including rapidly expanding empirical support of attachment theory, gender, and trauma theory. It will allow the reader to comprehensively develop assessment and treatment planning for a wide range of client-systems. The clinical approach to using Focused Genograms traces intergenerational patterns of attachment and helps the therapist create an attachment-focused bond with client-systems of all types.

In an era that demands ever-increasing levels of accountability and documentation, Family Assessment is a vital tool for clinicians. It provides the same comprehensive evaluation and thorough analysis as the first edition but with a fully updated focus that will invigorate the work of researchers, educators, and clinicians.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Marriage, Family and Couples Counseling is a new, all-encompassing, landmark work for researchers seeking to broaden their knowledge of this vast and diffuse field. Marriage and family counseling programs are established at institutions worldwide, yet there is no current work focused specifically on family therapy. While other works have discussed various methodologies, cases, niche aspects of the field and some broader views of counseling in general, this authoritative Encyclopedia provides readers with a fully comprehensive and accessible reference to aid in understanding the full scope and diversity of theories, approaches, and techniques and how they address various life events within the unique dynamics of families, couples, and related interpersonal relationships. Key topics include: Assessment Communication Coping Diversity Interventions and Techniques Life Events/Transitions Sexuality Work/Life Issues, and more Key features include: More than 500 signed articles written by key figures in the field span four comprehensive volumes Front matter includes a Reader’s Guide that groups related entries thematically Back matter includes a history of the development of the field, a Resource Guide to key associations, websites, and journals, a selected Bibliography of classic publications, and a detailed Index All entries conclude with Further Readings and Cross References to related entries to aid the reader in their research journey